Beating video puts cops on defense

Kelly Thomas trial may put limits on police aggression

This still photo taken from a security camera released on Monday May 7, 2012 by the Orange County District Attorney shows an altercation between Fullerton police officers and homeless Kelly Thomas at the Fullerton bus depot on July 5,2011. The grainy black and white video of Thomas' violent encounter with police outside a bus depot is the centerpiece of the prosecutions' case against two officers accused of escalating a standard police encounter with a homeless man into a fatal beating. (AP Photo/Orange County District Attorney)
— AP

This still photo taken from a security camera released on Monday May 7, 2012 by the Orange County District Attorney shows an altercation between Fullerton police officers and homeless Kelly Thomas at the Fullerton bus depot on July 5,2011. The grainy black and white video of Thomas' violent encounter with police outside a bus depot is the centerpiece of the prosecutions' case against two officers accused of escalating a standard police encounter with a homeless man into a fatal beating. (AP Photo/Orange County District Attorney)
/ AP

SACRAMENTO  Prosecutors rested their case last week in the trial of two former police officers accused of beating to death a homeless man, Kelly Thomas, at a Fullerton transit station more than two years ago. The case has garnered statewide attention because the jury’s decision, expected in January, will say much about limits on police behavior.

In July 2011, officers responded to a call that someone might be breaking into cars in the city’s downtown. An officer approached a well-known skinny vagrant and searched his backpack. What followed – captured by a surveillance camera and by officers’ audio recorders – was so shocking it led to citywide protests, a recall of City Council members and now a criminal trial.

In the ongoing trial, Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas said Manuel Ramos “needlessly escalated a routine encounter into a deadly beating.” Ramos is being tried for second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter.

The DA said that Jay Cicinelli, on trial for involuntary manslaughter and excessive use of force, “recklessly and repeatedly” beat Thomas’ face and head with a Taser. A third officer, Joseph Wolfe, will be tried separately for involuntary manslaughter and the excessive use of force.

Rackauckas’ opening statement portrayed Ramos as having had a long history of bullying Thomas and even trying to coerce him to leave the city. The two knew each other so well that Ramos didn’t even give him a “pat down,” given how little he had to fear from the vagrant. Thomas’ behavior was described as a tad belligerent, but not threatening.

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After some banter, Ramos slips on his plastic gloves and says to Thomas, “Now you see my fists? … They’re getting ready to f--- you up.”

Further details, as revealed by the recordings, are tear-inducing. Thomas complains that he can’t breathe as officers placed their weight on him. They punch and beat him. The encounter ends with Thomas calling out for his dad, then lying in a pool of blood. He died a few days later at a hospital. A widely circulated photo shows his face swollen beyond recognition.

After the beating, the police department sent out a false statement saying that the officers suffered broken bones in the scuffle, in an apparent effort to suggest that Thomas was a tough fighter. City Council members, including a former police chief, warned against jumping to conclusions about the cause of death. A councilman later compared peaceful protesters to a lynch mob.

The use of deadly force by police officers must, according to the law, be “objectively reasonable.” And myriad laws give officers the benefit of the doubt given that they must make split-second, life-or-death decisions. But this wasn’t a split-second situation. It was a painfully long encounter that involved various seemingly deliberate decisions by the officers to ratchet up the confrontation.